Ed “Big Daddy” Roth, the designer and cartoonist behind one of the most famous icons of the mid-century hot rod era, Rat Fink, was a self-taught artist.

Born in California in 1932, he took both auto shop and art in high school, but that’s pretty much how far any formal training went. He got bored in college, because the engineering and physics classes he took didn’t have anything to do with cars.

He picked up several useful skills through life, including learning to draw maps while serving in the Air Force, working on displays at a Sears, and later working in his own garage.

In the late 1950s, he began drawing exaggerated, over-sized creatures, and cartoon depictions of the hot rods and cars his friends had built. He later expanded this talent by selling airbrushed designs, known as “Weirdo” tees at shows. Once these started making their way into a popular enthusiasts’ magazine Car Craft, his shirts soon became a fashion craze well beyond just the hot rodding community.

Roth himself was influenced by the pin-striping expertise of fellow Kustom Kulture movement artist and customizer Kenny “Von Dutch” Howard, but Roth was the first in many design achievements. This included being the first designer to sculpt custom vehicles out of fiberglass.

It is for his grotesquely wild illustrations and characters for which he is best known. Most notably, of course, is Rat Fink, Roth’s bug-eyed, snaggle-toothed, drooling anti-hero counter to Mickey Mouse he first created as a drawing for his refrigerator. In 1963, Rat Fink had blossomed into Roth’s most famous creation selling countless model kits, t-shirts and other memorabilia.

Roth’s over-the-top combination of personality, counterculture lifestyle (although he later became a devout Mormon), and hyper-exaggerated art has given him a cult following by artists, musicians, writers, and filmmakers. Rat Fink and other Roth creations have popped up in tattoo designs, fashion, books (including coloring books), album art, custom car design, toy and model lines, and pretty much anything else.

Roth was still at work on new ideas when he passed away in 2001 at age 69.

According to several quotes by Roth from on his official site, no matter what he did in life, he wanted it to be original.

“If I find myself in a copy mode, I quickly shift to a lower gear and wheelie out,” he said.

The Project: Fink Your Fandom

Don’t worry about following rules of perspective and realism. Exaggerate, animate, and my all means, laugh a little. Image: Lisa Kay Tate

This project celebrating Roth’s love for what he did is straightforward: turn a favorite fandom, no matter how unlikely, into a crazy monster car drawing.

Since the purpose of these Be the Artist projects is to help people of all ages and skill levels to try out different styles of art, these Roth-inspired images will be not only a little less detailed than his work, but hopefully not so extreme. That doesn’t mean you can’t make this project as detailed or extreme…or crazy as you want.

Exaggerate. Exaggerate. Exaggerate! Besides making the character about two to three times as big as necessary for their vehicle, give the one or more of the following traits: bulging and/or bloodshot eyes, toothy depraved grins (often with lolling tongues), elongated arms, oversized gnarled hands (often clutching long and spindly gear shift), or wild, wild hair. In short, make them look really, really, really happy to be driving that car or motorcycle

I personally never go full-on gross, but you can still get the idea out, without the being too creepy, especially if drawing with kids.

Don’t worry about realism. Go for exaggeration. Image: Lisa Kay Tate.

Bring the vehicle to life. Remove all concepts you have “rigid metal,” and give the cars some personality. Let them bend a little to look they are going over hills, or have them “rear up,” on their hind end like horse. Let them lean into the turn, flatten in the wind, scrunch together if the break or on, or fit themselves to the driver. Let them kick up dirt and smoke or spew fire. Find a way to take that one, immovable image and give it motion.

Be Colorful and Comical. There may be those who will argue Roth was not serious artist, but no one can argue Roth was too serious. Whether people find his work, displeasing or delightful, it was evident Roth had fun. There is nothing his work that didn’t scream, almost audibly, with enthusiastic joy. Give your drawing details, colors or situations that will provoke smile, smirk or chuckle to whoever sees it.

Practice a few car sketches before adding your “monster,” in order to get the image how you want. Image: Lisa Kay Tate.

The mid-century tech of Sawyer’s View-Master; the original virtual travel. All images by Lisa Kay Tate.

Story originally ran in GeekMom in August, 2016.

Not long ago, we were cleaning out the closet and ran across an old circa 1949 Sawyer’s View-Master Stereoscope, which had been passed down from my husband’s grandparents.

Covered with dust and long forgotten, this little metal precursor to the red plastic version I had as a kid immediately brought back memories of looking at those little paper and film discs of favorite stories or Disneyland attractions.

The “modern” form of virtual tourism was first patented in 1939, based on the original stereoscope views created a century before that.

The description on the Reel List even felt nostalgic. I could almost hear the Ward Cleaveresque tone of the narrator as I read:

“If you have ever looked through an old-time Stereoscope, you’ll remember the thrilling fascination of

Checking out the cherry blossoms of Washington, D.C. in full color Kodachrome.

three dimension pictures,” it described. “Add the vivid full color of Kodachrome and you have the breath-taking ‘come to life’ realism of View-Master stereoscopic pictures.”

With this nifty viewer, I found four sets of “stereo picture reels” for my 3D viewing pleasure: “Colorado, U.S.A.,” “Washington, D.C,.” “Carlsbad Caverns,” and “The Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.” These were basically just three discs (seven images each) made of cardboard and film. These are contained in envelopes with mailing label space on the back so they could be sent as gifts. The included Reel List had at least four hundred disc packs to collect, mostly United States and world travel, but also books and fairy tales, holidays, religious study, movie stars (like Roy Rogers), comic book heroes including Tarzan and, and Sawyer’s own original View-Master serial, “The Adventures of Sam Sawyer.”

According to the price list, these sets were 35¢ a piece (or three for a dollar if you’re feeling a splurge coming on), and the stereoscope viewer itself was two dollars.

You know what? These images are clear and still really good 3D, even by today’s advanced standards.

I showed it to my youngest, who, at age 7 has already experienced the world of the modern Virtual Reality View-Masters, and to my surprise she loved it. My teen sat down with her, and soon they were going through reels and clicking away. No app. No smartphone. Just the strength of their index fingers on the little lever.

I’d like to say it’s refreshing to finally see kids enjoying these “old timey” toys, but this reaction is nothing new. My kids, and plenty of other kids I’ve seen, still really seem to eat up these low-tech toys, even with the unlimited amount of admittedly impressive battery-operated and app-driven devices on the market.

Here are four examples of low-tech (or no-tech) gadgets that are still very entertaining today:

Wind-Up Toys. They come in Christmas stockings and holiday gifts, Easter baskets, birthday goodie bags, and kids meals and carnival prizes, but these little mechanical gear-driven toys, which date back to nearly the 1500s, still operate on nearly the same clockwork principal. The wind-up key is almost the universal symbol for “toy.” There are even companies that will install giant turning “windup” keys to small car models to make them look like big toys. My girls have collected old-fashioned tin hopping frogs, plastic dinosaurs that plod and wave their little arms, fish and seals that swim, teeth that chatter, critters that flip, and many other little bouncy, hoppy, crawly beings. Most of these cost less than five dollars. Others are works of art, like the $20 plush Kikkerland Wind-Ups that remind me of artist Theo Jansen’s wind-driven Strandbeests creations.

Whirlygigs and Gyroscopes. These classic toys are wonderful beginner physics lessons for kids. Handheld propellers are the simple wooden or plastic toys consisting only of a single propeller attached a dowel. When the hands shift in the correct direction, it will take off flying. This toy has been around since the Renaissance era, great inventors from Leonard Di Vinci and the Wright Brothers are said to have played with them while studying the concept of lift. We’ve picked these up as convention giveaways or a little “country stores” on road trips. Even my youngest can get some serious air from these devices when given a good outdoor space and a few practice tries.

The gyroscope, a lesson in momentum, is simply a wheel or disc that rotates on an axis, and a more advanced version helps assist in stability and navigation of everything from bicycles to the Hubble Telescope. A detailed description of how they work can be found on How Stuff Works. The classic retro gyroscopes by Tedco are about $12 for a set of two. I keep gyroscopes on my and my kids’ desks, for some brain refreshing time during homework. There’s something very therapeutic about watching this little metal disc spin when perfectly balanced.

Mazes, propellers, and gyroscopes, can teach everything from physics to physical coordination.

Wooden Labyrinth and Sphere Mazes. This original Labyrinth wooden table maze, a test of hand-eye coordination, was created in Sweden in the 1940s and is still just as challenging today. The object, for those who don’t know, is to get a marble through a little maze by using little knobs on two sides to tilt the game’s surface. My brother got a labyrinth for his birthday once when he was a teenager. Although I wasn’t even eight, I would steal this cool looking wooden box from his room and drive myself crazy trying to maneuver that little metal ball through its wooden platform of holes and dead ends. I don’t remember if I ever completed it, but I remember how each hole I made it past was a personal victory.

My oldest loves this next step in ball maze evolution: the Perplexus spherical maze. This clear plastic ball includes an intricate little obstacle-filled maze that can be played anywhere. Since it’s held in the hands, you don’t even need a flat surface. This maze’s inventor, Michael McGuinness, created it for an art project in the 1970s, but it wasn’t until around 2008 the idea was on it’s way to becoming an award-winning toy. There’s also a Star Wars Death Star-themed Perplexus, but it requires batteries for its light up center.

I have personally never completed that confounded orb, but my oldest has come pretty close. Until then, it’s still a tempting piece to keep out in plain sight, as it’s easy to just pick up and start fiddling with.

Building Sets. I could spend several paragraphs just talking about the various building toys and sets that are still loved, but I’m pretty sure most parents, or kids, know all about most of these. These include the snap together building blocks like LEGO or MegaBloks, wooden stackable blocks or Lincoln Logs (which turn 100 this year), Tinkertoys, Connectagons, Bristle Blocks, and any number of plastic, wood, or metal pieces that click, snap, latch, or interlock to create structures limited only to the imagination. Any kid with more than one of these sets on hand often ends up doing a multi-media building creation using a little of each.

Let’s not forget the classic Erector and Meccano sets with their rivets, gears, wheels, and other assorted building pieces, complete with handy tool to help built them. I talked about our family’s experience with a simple Meccano erector set in my March article “Why We Love to Take Things Apart and Put Them Back Together,” but there are some sets, like the “Meccanoid” Robot, that break into more high-tech territory.

Why are these simple, “old school” playthings still so popular, when there’s an endless amount of augmented reality games and apps, 360° virtual reality adventures, nearly lifelike robotic figures, and video games with literally more than 18 quintillion planets to explore?

The short and obvious answer is, these things are still extremely fun.

However, there’s more than that. These toys give the user a chance to be directly engaged in the action. When the repetitiveness of swiping an image, tapping a flat surface, or pressing the same few buttons on a controller gets monotonous, the satisfaction of making something happen completely by your own power is rewarding. We want to crank that lever, twist that knob, pull that string, turn the wrench, snap together those pieces, and build that tower.

We are fortunate to be able to introduce our children to the high-tech toys, where they can learn coding, create virtual worlds, and carry an entire universe of characters on a small tablet screen, but we’re also thankful they like to feel the texture of a smooth wooden block, or hear the whir of a gear, and see a photograph without digital enhancement.

Low-tech toys and gadgets just feel more personal. More intimate. More real.

It isn’t just letting them enjoy the toys of their parents’ childhood to get in touch with the past. It is about helping them discover their own skills, passions, and talents for the future.

Kenny Howard (aka Von Dutch) was a pioneer in pin-striping, among other talents. Try your hand at some geeky pin-striping with this mini hood project. Image: Lisa Kay Tate

Originally ran in GeekMom on Aug. 5, 2016

Kenny Howard was one of most groundbreaking American artists of the 1950s, whose style and work is still influencing artists, graphic designers, musicians, fashion designers, and architects today. However, very few people would recognize his name. They would recognize one of his better-known nicknames: Von Dutch.Born in 1929 as the son of a sign painter, Von Dutch was already painting professionally by age ten. He got his famous nickname from being called “stubborn as a Dutchman,” and also excelled in his professional life as a motorcycle mechanic, metal fabricator, knifemaker, gunsmith, and more.

His recognizable striping style began gaining attention in the 1950s, and he became one of the fathers of the hot rod-centric style of art, fashion, cars, and more known as Kustom Kulture. He was known for his steady, intricate pinstriping patterns, as well as the “flying eyeball” symbol. His freehand work, often done with a thin paintbrush, was steady and exact, and it helped win him several awards for his custom work.

Kenny Howard, better known as Von Dutch, has been an icon Kustom Kulture art since the 1950s, and has been the subject of, or included in several publications of the movement.

After his death in 1992, his daughters sold the use of his name to the company Von Dutch Originals, which

became a multinational, licensed brand. Today, the company produces and sells clothes, jewelry, and other items worldwide celebrating the style and life of Von Dutch. There was even a Von Dutch energy drink, created for Rockstar Energy drinks, and one of the most complete books on the artist, The Art of Von Dutch by Al Quattrocchi and Jeff Smith.

Even though Von Dutch’s name is now often associated with a successful brand, Von Dutch, himself said in 1992, not long before his own death, that he felt “Copyright and patents are mostly an ego trip.”

His name may now be part of a license, but he welcomed people taking elements of his work and making it their own.

“Use any of my stuff you want to,” he said of those inspired by his style. “Nothing is original. Everything is in the subconscious; we just ‘tap’ it sometimes and ‘think’ we have originated something. Genes make us more or less interested in certain things but nothing is truly original!”

Before taking on a Von Dutch-inspired pattern on a real car hood, scale it down with a bit first. Image: Lisa Kay Tate

The Project: Little Kustom Hoods

This is a good beginner way to practice Von Dutch’s style of pin-striping, even if you don’t yet have a steady hand–nor a car or bike to work on.

First, make a hood using a square of cardboard or pasteboard. Round it off on one end or taper it to make it

resemble a little car hood. Next, spray or hand paint it the color you want and set it aside to dry. If you want a more industrial or steampunk look, add a few “rivets” using self-adhesive pearl or jewel stickers painted to match the hood.

Now, this part will take a little effort to perfect.

Find a good symmetrical image you like, (a mask, face, vehicle, logo, etc.) and draw a basic outline of one-half of it

(think of pinstripe work) on the edge of a sheer sheet of paper. Use tracing paper if you don’t want to draw freehand yet.

Next, add your own pinstripe pattern around it, as simple or complex as you like. Pinterest and clip art sites are great places for pinstripe ideas.

Now, place the design on top of the cardboard hood. Slowly but firmly trace over it with a pen or toothpick, so it leaves a slight indention in the cardboard. Flip the design over and trace its reverse side on the hood, aligned with the original pattern.

Draw or trace half a pattern on a sheet of sheer paper and add some “custom” pin-striping. Use a pen to transfer the image onto the cardboard hood, and paint over the image outline. Images: Lisa Kay Tate

Once done, this should produce a full, nearly symmetrical pattern on the hood top.

Finally, use a thin brush with acrylic paint (or paint pens) and paint over the design to give it the appearance of a custom pinstripe job.

Once you have mastered this technique, try it on other items, and eventually you might even be able to freehand like the master pinstriper himself. Eventually, you can move on to nonsymmetrical designs or more complex patterns. Even if you perfect this method, keep learning and evolving, because Von Dutch felt knowledge was the most valuable thing of all.“The only thing you can truly own is your knowledge,” he said. “For you can sell it, give it away, and still keep it.”

Sandra Boynton is more than just an illustrator of children’s books. She is a humorist, songwriter, director, music producer, and writer.

She was born in New Jersey in 1953. As a Quaker, she attended the German Town Friends school her entire elementary and secondary school life, and fit in well with the “upbeat offbeat” arts-centric curriculum.

Boynton’s experience and knowledge is extremely varied. She spent part of her sophomore year at a school in England, she studied Latin for five years (to avoid science classes), and studied at Yale and in Paris. She even joined the Yale Glee Club when more singers were needed to perform “Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony” at Carnegie Hall.

When she graduated in 1974, she received special (and fictional) “Master’s Magna” designation by the master of residential college. Her college master did this for her because, although her grade point average didn’t add up to an honors degree, she told her professor her parents were in the audience, and would “really appreciate it if you could just mumble some Latin after my name.” He did.

Boynton’s menagerie of illustrated characters give her one of the most recognizable styles in books for all ages. Image: Lisa Kay Tate. Author image insert: Creative Commons.

Her original intentions were to become a theater director, but when her first child was born in 1979, she felt working with theater and raising a family might not be compatible for her. However, she had begun illustrating images for the Recycled Paper Greetings in the 1970s. Her designs sold nearly 500 million copies. Her most famous animal-themed birthday card wish, “Hippo Birdie Two Ewes!” has sold more than 10 million copies alone.

She has created more than 50 illustrated children’s board books, humor books, calendars and more. She has won several honors for her work, and her menagerie of books such as Hippos Go Berserk!, Barnyard Dance, Oh My Oh My Dinosaurs, and others have sold more than 60 million copies.

Boynton has also written and directed theater productions, created several songs and music albums of what she calls “renegade children’s music,” often accompanied by a companion book. She designs all her merchandise herself, and enjoys doing her work in a reconstructed century-old barn in New England.

Even though Boynton didn’t originally plan on becoming an illustrator and author, she did take advantage of her Latin studies with her book Grunt, which mixes Latin plainchant and Pig Latin.

She called this book in an autobiographical talk in 2002, “the culmination of a lifetime spent joyfully squandering an expensive education on producing works of no apparent significance.”

Significant or not, many of her readers are glad she did.

No beastie is too big or bad for a Boynton-style makeover. Images: Lisa Kay Tate

The Project: Very Bad Beasties

What is Sandra Boynton, an artist known for her cute, humorous beasties, went bad?

What if she decided barnyard and zoo animals weren’t for her anymore and she took a walk on the dark side of the world of fauna?

She never would, but truth is, if she did, everything would still be adorable.

For this project, let’s do some parodies of Boynton’s style were she to have created some of cinema and literature’s baddest beasties.

Start out by taking a look at what makes a Boynton so well loved and doodle a generic one in her style. Some basics might include:

An oval or pear-shaped body

Circular round eyes with just a simple black dot. These are never perfect circles, and are often slightly close together near the top part of the face.

Very simple hands and feet (or paws and hooves)

Color mostly around the edges of the beastie. The center is often left white. Using colored-pencil, crayon or watercolor will keep the colors soft and light.

Once you’ve tried out, think about what baddie your planning, and add some of their signature elements: tentacles, claws, horns, fangs, excessive hair, scales, or other beastly features. How would Boynton add them?

Even though Boynton would likely fall to the dark side, she is just the right kind of weird to bring some light to it if she did. One source of her own inspiration she uses to ward off any bad feelings is chocolate. She even wrote about it’s uplifting properties in her book Chocolate: The Consuming Passion.

“The greatest tragedies were written by the Greeks and by Shakespeare. Neither knew chocolate,” she wrote. “The Swiss are known for nonviolence. They are also known for superb chocolate.”

Boynton’s style could even bring Smaug down to size. Image: Lisa Kay Tate

“Shag” is the name So-Cal artist Josh Agle, created by taking the last two letters of his first name and first two letters of his last name, and merging them together into one nifty moniker.

He was born in 1962 in Southern California, and lived in such varied places as Los Angeles, Hawaii, and Utah growing up. He studied both accounting and architecture at California State University in Long Beach, and eventually decided to be an “illustrator for hire.” However, his sleek, mid-century style began to receive more and more attention from art lovers and galleries. Since his first solo show in 1997, Shag’s work has made its way into solo and group exhibits worldwide, been featured on everything from pillows to purses, album covers to lanterns, and he has gained legions of loyal fans.

His subject matter ranges from adult-oriented stories in lounges and parties, to family-friendly images, including many commissions for Disneyland and other high-profile clients. There are often well-known commercial logos, famous bars and buildings, and tourist attractions, all in his simple, colorful, retro style.

Whether worthy of a cocktail lounge or family theme park, Shag’s images are always filled with color and life. Images: Lisa Kay Tate (left), and D.M. Short via Creative Commons.

His work can be seen in shows and collections worldwide, or at his own stores in West Hollywood and Palm Springs.

Many fans of the mid-century style recognize Shag’s laid-back swingers, barflies, tikis, and retro families, but Shag himself has said these people and places are secondary to the tale they tell, as quoted in a bio the book Tiki Art Now! curated by Otto von Stroheim:

“Most of my paintings are set in the middle of a story or situation,” he said. “[The] characters are interacting or reacting to each other in the outside elements.”

“Date Night” by Lisa Kay Tate.

The Project: Groovy Tales of Make Believe Away Places

Painting a Shag-style picture isn’t just about style, it is about storytelling. Shag has said he is more interested in the “narrative” of the story than just the scenery, so this is a perfect chance to tell a swingin’ story from outer space, after a zombie invasion, or in any other alternate world.

With this project, think about telling a Shag-like narrative in an out-of-this-world scene. What’s happening at the party on Mos Eisley? Who is hanging out on the U.S.S. Enterprise holodeck? What’s happening at the harvest fest in Hobbiton? Throw a party anywhere you want, and tell its story in a Shag-like environment.

From looking at Shag’s imagery, there are three things that seem to stand out.

• His people are very simple. The eyes are often variations on black dots, their bodies are often lanky and lean, and their clothes are never too complicated. If you look closely at his subjects’ hands, he often uses the cartoonist’s trick of drawing only four fingers (including the thumb). The trick is, don’t just let them stand there, give them something to do. Put them out there, and let them mingle a bit.

Take a look at Shag’s simple way of painting figures and faces (left) to create a Mid-Century style in your own characters (right). Image compilation: Lisa Kay Tate

• He doesn’t use outlines. Draw your picture in a thin pencil first, but color it in with marker, colored pencil, crayon or paint avoiding any black lines around the edges. This can include both patterned or solid colors, but no black cartoon or illustration style outlines.

• Make the background fun and colorful, adding some details that help tell the story. Is the sun setting, or rising? Are they in a person’s home or a public place? Is there a band playing in the back, or surfer in the foreground? Shag loves hanging fixtures, random pets and animals, wall art, pools, plants, and countless other patterns and details that help set the scene without over-complicating things.

To really appreciate Shag’s world, take a look at the details behind the main characters in his work (left). What would you add to your worlds? (right). Image compilation: Lisa Kay Tate

Make it lively. Make it colorful. Make it deceivingly simple.

Most of all, make it fun! Shag’s art loves a good party, so blast off, have a ball, and draw your favorite subjects. Shag said in an interview with the site Art Beat Street, there is a little of himself in all he does.

“I relate to all the characters in my paintings,” he said. “I think they all contain a little bit of my personality.”